SOUNZ Concerts

Ngā konohete

Maria Grenfell's contrapuntal 'Clockwerk' kicks off this programme inspired by construction, robots, and unusual musical instruments. Jason Long expertly melds live electronics with the sounds of a robotic glockenspiel in 'Broken Mirror', while Alex Taylor deconstructs a series of dances in 'burlesques mècaniques'. David Hamilton's lively 'Hurdy Gurdy' evokes the eponymous string instrument with the medieval melody 'Como poden per sas culpas'.

Starting off this concert inspired by spirals and circles, Michael Norris’s virtuosic Violin Concerto ‘Sama’ takes the motion of dancers in Sufi ceremony as its point of departure. It is followed by ‘The Exotic Circle’ by John Rimmer. 

The eight musicians are deployed in a circle, passing the music around to each other as they navigate through a colourful voyage of new sounds for the recorder. John Psathas’s ‘Helix’ finishes off the programme, exploring aspects of mediterranean folk music, from the rhythms of ancient Greece to Roma fiddling.

Douglas Lilburn’s classic ‘Overture Aotearoa’ begins this programme of four evocative pieces. The urban landscape is represented by Sarah Ballard’s exploratory ‘street : noise : graffiti’. Christopher Blake’s ‘The Angel at Ahipara’ takes a Robin Morrison photograph of a Northland churchyard as its point of departure, while in ‘Cries of Auckland’ Eve de Castro Robinson throws us into the sounds of Auckland protest marches through the decades.

These three pieces present an ambitious and unique blending of styles and cultural traditions. Philip Brownlee and Ariana Tikao collaborated to create ‘Ko the tātai whetū’, presented here in the version for taonga pūoro and ensemble. Michael Norris’s ‘Sygyt' is likely the first concerto for throat-singer, while Callum Allardice’s ‘A gathering’ combines jazz ensemble The Jac with Black String, a group including traditional Korean instruments and electric guitar.

Being an island nation, there is no shortage of New Zealand music inspired by the sea, in all its moods. Gareth Farr’s ‘Te Tai-O-Rehua’ is a dark-hued portrait of the Tasman Sea, while Lilburn’s ‘Three Sea Changes’ provide a balancing tranquility. The programme is rounded out by Eve de Castro-Robinson’s sonorous ‘Pearls of the Sea’, Ross Harris’s ephemeral Etude (Waves) and Jenny McLeod’s piano trio adaptation of three sea-inspired tone-clock pieces.

United by their brevity, this diverse collection of contrasting works showcases the range and vitality of New Zealand composition.